Kanye Wests falls out with Tidal, could go legal

When Tidal runs out of albums to exclusively stream, it could start making coverage of its legal battles available to subscribers on an exclusive basis. That should be fun. It’s reported that legal letters are now going backwards and forwards between the Jay-Z headed streaming company and one of its highest profile celebrity backers, Kanye West.

West, of course, took part in that infamous parade of embarrassment back in 2015 when Jay-Z first bought the streaming firm and announced that he’d made a plethora of popstars shareholders in the company. The rapper subsequently delivered the goods for the streaming service by initially making his 2016 album ‘The Life Of Pablo’ exclusively available to the platform, while the recordings on it were still evolving.

It seems that it’s because of that exclusive that West has now fallen out with the digital firm. Sources tell TMZ that West was under the impression he would receive a cash bonus for the subscriber boost that exclusive resulted in. He also reportedly reckons that Tidal owes him monies for videos it promised to pay for – in total West is apparently seeking about $3 million from the Tidal company.

The gossipers talking to TMZ add that Tidal counters that it is yet to see the videos that West wants money for. He apparently says he’ll send over the vids just as soon as he gets the cash. A series of legal letters about the unpaid monies hasn’t seemingly solved anything as yet, with West’s lawyer reportedly saying that the rapper now considers his contract with Tidal void; Tidal saying it will sue if West tries to do any sort of exclusivity deal with a rival; and West’s lawyer declaring that that would result in a countersuit.

Neither side has, as yet, commented on the rumoured dispute. Though reports about the legal wrangling closely follow chatter about lines on Jay-Z’s new album ‘4:44’ that seem to diss his former collaborator and soon-to-be-ex Tidal business partner.

The spat with West is not the first Tidal artist relationship to result in legal dispute. As previously reported, after Prince’s death the late musician’s estate said it couldn’t find any paperwork to back up the wide-ranging exclusivity deal Tidal reckoned it had over his recordings catalogue.